


For the Good of the Earth

by merryghoul



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-30
Updated: 2013-08-30
Packaged: 2017-12-25 03:03:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/947857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor reunites with Ace while she's moonlighting; they have an overdue chat about their past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For the Good of the Earth

A Charitable Earth is a billion pound registered charity to encourage and support young people into getting involved in the sciences.  Headquartered in London's Canary Wharf district, A Charitable Earth has community branches in several cities and towns throughout the United Kingdom.  These individual branches host interactive sessions on a variety of topics, from chemistry to physics to biology, hosted by volunteers.  There are also conferences, festivals and appreciation weeks.

A Charitable Earth amasses some of its billions of pounds through people donating money through gifts in their wills and through memorial donations.  But the majority of its money comes from fundraising drives developed by the founder and president of the charity, Dorothy Gale McShane. 

During the day, Dorothy plans fundraising events and dates for certain events to be held for the local branches of the charity.  It's a lot of paperwork and staring in front of a desktop computer for hours at a time, with a lunch break in between, of course.

And while helping young people discover the joy of the sciences during the day is a job Dorothy likes, she has more fun with her hobby: saving the streets of London from beings from other planets. Dorothy's employees and co-workers don't know Dorothy is also known as Ace, the one time companion of the Doctor and, at one point of her life, one of the most feared and revered defenders of the universe.

Torchwood One was lost in the Battle of Canary Wharf.  UNIT isn't the type of agency to have officers roam the streets to look for paranormal threats.  The Doctor's not always available to combat Earth's enemies.  Why not patrol the streets of London to keep it safe? 

 

When everyone has left A Charitable Earth for the day, Ace slips out of her dress and gets into a t-shirt, jeans, boots and her jacket, covered with the patches she acquired years ago.  She straps on a backpack filled with Nitro-9.  She gets on her motorcycle and rides around Canary Wharf, looking for things out of the ordinary on London's streets.

On this particular night, it doesn't take long for her to see a disturbance.  A Blowfish throws a brick at a window in a store, shattering the glass.  The Blowfish climbs in the store, taking a package of water bottles out of it.  Ace follows the Blowfish as it turns down an alleyway.

She parks her motorcycle just short of the alleyway's opening.  But before she can open her backpack and prepare her Nitro-9, she hears a voice. 

"So you decided that you were thirsty enough to steal a package of water.  I'll have you know, Mister Blowfish, that on this planet, people either buy their water or get it from a faucet.  I want you to put the water down and come with me."

Ace peeks out into the alleyway, her backpack back on her back and a canister of Nitro-9 in her hand.  A man with a tweed jacket and trousers is standing in front of the Blowfish. 

"Oi!  He's mine."

The Blowfish puts the water down…on the man's boots.

The man groans.  "I didn't mean 'put the water down on my feet.'"

The Blowfish runs away.  The man looks up and sees the Blowfish and Ace. 

"Ace?"

"Professor?"  She puts down the Nitro-9.

"How many times have I told you?  It's the _Doctor,_ not the Professor."

Ace runs to the Doctor.  "It _is_ you.  But you're a bit taller.  And your face is longer." 

"I can't control my regenerations.  If I could, I'd be ginger by now."

"I'm sorry about the Blowfish."

"Not now, Ace.  We have a Blowfish to catch.  And I see you're still not carrying your Nitro-9.  I'd like to borrow it when the time comes."

"Just like old times."  Ace smiles, but it gives into a frown.

"Yeah, just like the old times."

 

The Doctor meets the Blowfish again a couple of blocks from the alley. 

"You didn't think I'd catch up to you, didn't you?"

The Blowfish starts to back up.

"I wouldn't run if I were you.  It's too late.  You've committed acts of vandalism and theft.  I have no choice but to hand you over to UNIT."

The Blowfish runs away.  He's knocked off his feet by an explosive blast that sends a trash can flying into the middle of the street.

Ace is hiding behind a corner.  She runs and grabs the Blowfish's feet.

"The TARDIS is nearby, right, Professor?"

"She's just around this corner.  Dropping Mister Blowfish off at UNIT shouldn't take long."

 

The Blowfish is left in front of UNIT tied up with rope.  The message "FROM THE DOCTOR" is pinned to said ropes.

The Doctor has the TARDIS' coordinates locked into that night, but a few minutes after the Blowfish was caught by Ace and himself.

Ace is quiet.  She's leaning on one of the railings surrounding the controls.

"I know you're still upset about what I did to you while you were still my companion."

Ace says nothing.

The Doctor faces Ace.  "All my regenerations are different.  I don't even like the one that rolls his Rs anymore."

Ace still says nothing.

"I had just come from a regeneration that was arrogant.  But he was a good regeneration.  Very brave Doctor…me.  You should meet him sometime.  Curly blonde hair, tacky coat, liked cats.  I hate cats now.  Cats aren't cool.  The next regeneration, you know, the short Doctor with the hat and the scarves and all the question marks?  He hated tacky coat me.  He thought he was weak _because_ he pretended to be arrogant and was brave and all.  He started off very silly.  You can have Mel confirm that."

"I don't know where Mel is now."

"Maybe we can find her tonight.  I'll change the coordinates—"

Ace shakes her head.

"No?  No.  Okay.  Anyway, instead of overcoming his silliness with braveness, he overcame it with manipulating others.  He saw himself as the greatest chess player in the galaxy, and everyone was a pawn, including you."

"I know, Professor."

"He played the game so well…he drove everyone in his life away.  And he ended up traveling the galaxy alone.  He didn't check up on anyone he knew in his past.  He didn't check up on _you._   And then he died on an operating table because the surgeon that operated on him thought he was a human.  Then I had curly brown hair and a green coat, but that's another story.

"I don't think I can ever make it up to you, even if I say I'm sorry.  But I regret what I did when I was the short Doctor with the hat and scarves and question marks."

There is silence between them for a while.

"Professor?"

"It's the…oh, never mind."

"The Professor I knew wasn't _that_ bad.  I didn't like the manipulations, but I liked everything else about you.  Without you, I'd be stuck on Iceworld forever."

"That's true."

"And you were like the father I never had.  In retrospect, you could've taught me to be brave without going about it the way you did.  But you taught me to be brave.  You inspired me to want to change the galaxy.  And I did, with and without you.  I wish you could've seen me in Paris…in 1887."

"How'd you end up there?"

"It's a long story, Professor.  But I decided to retire from saving the galaxy a few years after I started.  I wanted to share my love of the sciences with other children so they wouldn't end up like how I was before I met you.  I came back to the present day, started A Charitable Earth, and now we're all over the United Kingdom.  I wouldn't have done it without you."

The Doctor laughs.  "Oh ho ho, a charity.  And it's named after _you,_ how clever.  Can I see it?"

"It's a bit late to see the charity right now.  It's almost 1 AM now."

"Well, how about we go to 8 AM?"

"I can't go into the charity looking like this.  We have a conservative image."

The Doctor presses a button, revealing a wardrobe that surrounds the TARDIS console.  "I think I might have something."

 

The Doctor is the honored guest at A Charitable Earth the next day.  Dorothy takes him on a tour of the rooms of the charity and shows him all their accomplishments. They talk as if they are old friends.

The employees are shocked to learn that Dorothy and the Doctor are friends.  The press is also shocked; tabloid journalists manage to sneak their way into A Charitable Earth's lobby to take pictures of the Doctor and Dorothy together.  The Doctor and Dorothy don't mind.

Dorothy offers this one statement to the press, which eventually leads the _Daily Mail,_ the _Mirror_ and the _Sun_ to attempt to create 500 word articles around it and their photos. 

"Without the Doctor, there would be no A Charitable Earth.  I owe my success to him." 

The next day the Doctor and the tabloid press are gone from A Charitable Earth.  The press thinks they've got the story down, but there's so much they'll never know.  And for the good of the earth, Ace would like to keep that a secret. 


End file.
